Former state trooper charged with 12 counts of child abuse

Police were first contacted more than a decade ago about a De Pere couple and their son who are accused of abusing the couple's adopted children.

The mother, Sharon M. Windey, 54, a former Wisconsin State trooper, was charged Thursday in Brown County Circuit Court with 12 counts of child abuse. The charges include two counts of repeated child abuse with a high probability of causing great bodily harm, one count of physical child abuse, one count of strangulation and suffocation, one count of battery, three counts of child neglect and four counts of causing mental harm to a child. 

According to a 42-page criminal complaint, the abuse spanned 12 years. During that time several reports were made by school officials, social workers and others in the community alleging abuse towards the three children at the hands of Sharon Windey, her husband Donald A. Windey, 52, and the couple's 26-year-old biological son Steven D. Windey.

Former state trooper charged with 12 counts of child abuse